Humanities students at Rice?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>I was accepted to Rice and I pretty much love everything about it. The one thing that worries me is that I know many of Rice's students are going into engineering/pre-med/hard sciences. I'm a prospective humanities major -- do any current or prospective students have anything to say regarding the experience of humanities students at Rice? Does the student body look down on the humanities in any way? Is graduate school and career advising as strong for humanities majors as it is for science majors?</p>

<p>also -- this is unrelated, but can anyone please direct me to a page that explains Rice's distribution requirements?</p>

2

<p>I’ll let others answer your first question. Here’s a link to answer your second question: [Distribution</a> Credit | Office of the Registrar | Rice University](<a href=“http://registrar.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=92&linkidentifier=id&itemid=92]Distribution”>http://registrar.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=92&linkidentifier=id&itemid=92)</p>

3

<p>Thanks! The page says that students must take 12 semester hours in each of the 3 groups – approximately how many courses is that? How many semester hours are most courses?</p>

4

<p>

</p>

<p>Based on what my S says, I’ve got to say no to this one. The emphasis is definitely on the science and engineering majors. I wish Career Services did more for liberal arts kids.</p>

<p>But no, the student body doesn’t look down on humanities majors at all.</p>

5

<p>A typical course is 3 credit hours. So you need to take 4 courses in D1 (humanities), D2 (social sciences), and D3 (science, math) groups.</p>

<p>Trust me, the distribution req’s are very easy to fulfill over 4 years. Don’t worry.</p>

6

<p>I’m also worried about this! From what I’ve seen, Rice seems to be very into math/science and research. I’m planning to double major in Political Science and Spanish and am worried that my opportunities to study this at Rice won’t be as good as opportunities from schools that place less emphasis on math/science.</p>

7

<p>I should link you guys up with the thread from the guy who worried that Rice was too heavy into the Social Sciences and Humanities, w/ not enough focus on Science and Engineering. :wink: Dd was Humanities, then Social Science major. Had some great profs, study abroad, was a Humanities fellow, had some GREAT Spanish classes, did a medical span. translating internship at the med center, yada, yada, yada. Peruse the Rice website, and look at the center for civic engagement, Baker institute for public policy, and all the ops there. I do agree that the career center is a little more focused on science/engineering, but that’s not the case academically. And I REALLY encourage to spend some hours looking in all the academic department websites and the career center and study abroad website, because there is so much offered at Rice.</p>

8

<p>You might be interested in an op-ed I wrote for last week’s Thresher:
[Dean</a> misrepresents mission of humanities - Opinion](<a href=“http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/03/19/Opinion/Dean-Misrepresents.Mission.Of.Humanities-3891859.shtml]Dean”>http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/03/19/Opinion/Dean-Misrepresents.Mission.Of.Humanities-3891859.shtml)</p>

<p>It doesn’t really answer your question, but I think every humanities student at Rice should read it (but I’m biased).</p>

<p>To answer your question, though, I have very much enjoyed being a humanities student at Rice. You might catch some crap your freshman year, but generally as people grow up the engineers get less haughty. The usefulness of career services really depends on what job you’re looking for, not what your major is. If you want to work for a big corporate, in engineering, i-banking, etc., career services can do more for you because big corporates have big recruiting programs. I actually think they’re more useful for social sciences than natural sciences, just because of the nature of the kinds of jobs those people go after. Graduate advising for humanities, though, is really strong, and is done mostly through the various undergraduate departments.</p>

9

<p>You all should contact some of the humanities/social sciences professors and ask if the concerns you have are true.</p>

<p>Humanities are strong here, but I do agree that Rice isn’t as focused on humanities/social sciences as maybe Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, etc.</p>

<p>I know many people majoring in Poli Sci (I took Comparative Politics myself), and the department seems to be pretty strong. Of course, it is not what Rice is known for, but there are many public policy/poli sci opportunities and internships available at Rice. We have the Baker Institute, which is one of the top 30 or so public policy think tanks in the country. Therefore, there are many (albeit competitive) internship opportunities to study in Washington DC.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, from what I heard, the Hispanic Studies Department recently got rid of their MA/phD program because of budget cuts. I don’t think the resources for a Spanish major are really that great here… but, the Government of Spain recently opened a Spanish Resource Center at Rice (not an actual building… more like a small room in the humanities building), so the dept may be in the upswing. However, if you want to take spanish language courses, there are plenty of those here; the spanish professors here are pretty chill. Check around this website to see if they offer some of the courses you are interested in: [Hispanic</a> Studies at Rice University](<a href=“http://hispanicstudies.rice.edu/]Hispanic”>http://hispanicstudies.rice.edu/). I would also send an email to a professor in the department and ask about the opportunities available. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, with Rice being a smaller school, you may not have the breadth of classes offered at larger universities. I discovered that this year. However, the small size also has countless advantages though… i.e. you are not a random person in a sea of faces.</p>

<p>Also, although Rice is stereotyped for being a science/engineering school, keep in mind that most Rice students end up graduating in a major in the humanities/social sciences.</p>

<p>As you all make your college decisions, this is the biggest tip I can give you: visit, talk/send an email to professors in areas of interest, and talk to students. Best of luck with your decision!</p>

10

<p>woww, thank you so much for all the info! This will definitely help in my decision…I’m on the website for the Baker Institute as i type! :D</p>

11

<p>Here’s a link to a thread I started last April:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/686190-humanities-writing-rice.html?highlight=writing[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/686190-humanities-writing-rice.html?highlight=writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This information was very influential, and as a result my son kept Rice on his short list and applied, and found out today that he’s been accepted. So thanks again, NYSkins1</p>

12

<p>Also, I forgot to mention that I found browsing around rice.edu was very informative. I especially remember the Art History page. Worth looking at even if you aren’t applying to Rice.</p>